Emmy Rossum has just two more weeks left on Shameless, and we still haven’t the slightest clue how she’ll be written off. At this point, the exit strategy should probably be making itself known in some way or another, but I suppose that might be asking too much from Shameless these days. This week’s installment, “You’ll Know the Bottom When You Hit It”, finally forces the eldest Gallagher sibling to face some ugly truths about herself – and finally makes it seem like the rest of the people close to her care about what’s going on with her – but more on that later.

Carl, Debbie, and Kelly’s weird love triangle continues, which makes sense for Carl as a storyline, but not a ton for Debbie. It feels so trivial in the grand scheme of things, and Debbie hasn’t had much to do this season except run the Gallagher house (which now seems to be Lip’s deal again). By the end of the episode, Carl’s jealous ways push Kelly into dumping him, and it’s hard to blame her for ending it – who wants to be fought over by a brother/sister duo? (Speaking of brothers, Liam is once again nowhere to be seen this episode. That’s two weeks in a row!)

Surrogate Xan Dad Lip is forced to bid farewell to the little girl, and it hurts – but at this rate, it seems like the best thing for her. There is enough chaos in the Gallagher house as it is, and some structure (and fewer family fights and booze) might be good for Xan. Between her departure and Tami’s pregnancy, Lip is predictably pushed over the edge and throws Fiona’s shit out of the house. He was serious about her leaving, and when she tries to crash with Kev and V, Lip pleads with V to say no and let Fiona hit rock bottom – it’s the only way she’s going to get better.

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More like her father than ever, Fiona teams up with Frank to take advantage of a citywide blackout and sell supplies to South Siders, and business is good. By the end of it all, though, Frank lets Fiona in on a little secret: she’s a bad drunk. It makes her mean. And despite all her protesting and incredulousness that a drunk like Frank would call her out on her alcohol consumption, he’s right: drinking makes her a monster. Drinking makes Frank, well, Frank. Say what you want about the Gallagher patriarch, but he’s never been a character driven by anger or cruelty. Just a selfish, usually giddy drunk. And if Frank Gallagher says you’re a bad drunk, he’s probably onto something.

There’s a lot that happens in this week’s hour, including an almost-protest and a blackout cookout, but Shameless finally manages to pack a real emotional gut punch with Fiona’s arc in this episode. It’s hard to get invested when nothing has really stuck so far, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. Fiona chokes back tears after V tells her she can’t stay with them (also, we get a small glimmer of that old friendship, which is dearly missed), and winds up sleeping in the lobby of her old apartment building. To call Fiona waking up hungover and disoriented in the place that once marked her success and way out of the South Side “depressing” would be an understatement. Is this rock bottom? It seems about as close to it as we’ve seen her, and once she’s vomited on the floor and cried a bit, Fiona ends up attending an AA meeting. Lip noticing that she’s come is enough to make anyone emotional, but it still doesn’t give us any indication how Fiona’s going to exit the show.

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Despite all my issues with this season, “You’ll Know the Bottom When You Hit It” is probably its best episode so far. It feels like the writers woke up and remembered the tight-knit Lip-and-Fiona relationship, the storied V-and-Fiona friendship, and even the Frank-and-his-children dynamic. It hit hard at the end, wrecking us the way old school Shameless used to. The show certainly isn’t what it once was, but if they continue in this direction, it might have a shot at reinventing itself in an interesting, emotionally resonant way.